Guide to Online MBAs in Cybersecurity

With the birth of the Master’s of Business Administration degree over a century ago, the landscape of graduate business programs has significantly changed. The demand for knowledgeable and skilled leaders has skyrocketed, and so has the demand for this popular degree. Students are constantly pursuing the top on-campus and online MBA programs to develop their leadership skills and increase their chances of a quick trip up the organizational ladder. Over the past 100 years, this professional degree has increased in breadth and depth. And what was once a simple business degree has evolved into a vast program encompassing numerous concentrations, specializations, majors, and certificates covering specialized topics in business and business sector/job specialty. Students can currently pursue online MBA programs with specialized curriculum in Finance, International Business, Entrepreneurship, IT, Human Resources, and Supply Chain Management, with more choices added every semester. Online MBA Today explores different online MBA degree options in order to give prospective students information on the multitude of fields and degrees available.

Let’s explore the critical field of Cybersecurity.

Online MBA in Cybersecurity

Increasingly, much of work we do is digital, which means there is an ever-increasing need to keep our information secure. An online MBA in cybersecurity will give you the tools necessary to build and maintain systems to keep information safe in a digital world. Cybersecurity can be a blind spot for many businesses to some degree, and poor security practices can have devastating consequences. Management with training in this area is vital for the long-term success of a company, and an Online MBA in Cybersecurity will prepare you to be the person to handle or prevent security threats.

An Online MBA in Cybersecurity is a good option if you are interested in the technical side of business and information systems security. In addition to the standard MBA coursework to build up your managerial skills, you will also learn about current security solutions, how to analyze policies, trends, and intelligence to anticipate and react to cyber threats, how to make recommendations to a business based on a risk assessment, and how to give recommendations to reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

Standard coursework for a cybersecurity concentration includes IT risk assessment, cybercrime and cyberterrorism, cloud security, and cybersecurity ethics, laws, and regulations. These are in addition to the courses on business ethics, finance, marketing, operations management, business communication, and organizational behavior you can expect from any online MBA program. Most MBA programs also have some sort of capstone project to give students hands-on experience in the field.

Online MBA programs in Cybersecurity offer the same level of education as traditional, on-campus programs, but provide you the benefit of flexibility. They allow you to balance work, family, and education. The schedules tend to be highly adaptable with many programs providing a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning. It is important to note whether the program you are interested in requires any on-campus time, and if it does, whether you can make that work for you or not. And with today’s online learning platforms, distance learning is more interactive than it ever has been. Also, technological fluency is essential in today’s business world, so where better to get up to speed than in your online MBA program.

Job opportunities for those with MBAs in Cybersecurity are in nearly every industry, including healthcare, finance, retail, and government. While most cybersecurity work is at a desk, there is often a fair bit of fieldwork depending upon your concentration. Careers include information security analyst, cybersecurity engineer, cybersecurity advisor, or project manager. This is a continually growing field offering high pay. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an information security analyst will make $92,600 a year, on average.

An online MBA provides you with a solid business and managerial foundation that translates across industries and roles, and the focus on cybersecurity puts you in a high demand field.